Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Mt Washington Hall of Fame - class of 2011

The second class for the Mount Washington Hall of Fame has been announced!

From the official press release –

Derek Froude, the first person to run up the Mt. Washington Auto Road in under one hour, joins four-time Mt. Washington champions Mike Gallagher and Daniel Kihara this year as the 2011 inductees to the Mt. Washington Road Race Hall of Fame. These three extraordinary runners will be honored this summer in a ceremony held at the base of Mt. Washington on Friday, June 17, the evening before the 51st running of this all-uphill race to the summit of the highest peak in the Northeast.

Stats on each (from my records)

Derek Froude – A two-time winner and the first runner to break one hour.He set the course record in 1990 with his 59:17.Derek raced three times from 1990-1992 and his only defeat was a second place finish in 1992.Derek also twice competed in the Olympic marathon finishing 34th and 35th place respectively (http://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/fr/derek-froude-1.html).

Mike Gallagher – Had four consecutive wins from 1968 to 1971, only Bob Hodge has more consecutive wins (five).He ran a personal best of 1:06:13.The world-class skier from Killington Vermont was victorious in all of his attempts.He was a three-time Olympic cross-country skier (http://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/ga/mike-gallagher-1.html).At the time of his second win he held two of the top three times.His third and fourth victories were unprecedented.In his final win in 1971 he took a 51 second victory over Amby Burfoot as the field topped 100 runners for the first time with 112 finishing.

Daniel Kihara – Had four wins in five attempts from 1996 to 2002.His only loss was a sixth place finish in the weather-shortened race in 2002.All of his times were between 58:21 and 1:00:06.He has the single age records for age 28, 32, and 33.He is the only runner in the history of the race with three sub-one hour finishes.